Today in History: On October 19, 1656 Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting the further immigration of Quakers into the Puritan colony. It was this prohibition that would later lead to the establishment of the colony at Pennsylvania. This means that our original Pilgrim settlers, who came to America seeking religious freedom, probably would not have agreed with the much later First Amendment to the United States Constitution that prohibited the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 06:59:18 +0000